WESTERN PROVINCES SET TO CLASH

Cricket Alberta will host the inaugural Western Division of Cricket Canada’s NATIONAL LEAGUE T20 this weekend (August 27th & 28th) at picturesque Victoria Park.

This new look Inter-Provincial western series of six (6) matches played between Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan will take place on the VP’s newly minted turf.

The natural turf at Edmonton’s Victoria Park is the first outside of Ontario and one of three facility development projects by Cricket Canada. Projects in Winnipeg and Abbotsford are expected to begin construction in the near future.

The NATIONAL LEAGUE structure has four components: The Atlantic Division was a regional qualifier conducted in Halifax from June 10th – 12th between Nova Scotia, Newbrunswick, Newfoundland, PEI, & Quebec with Quebec being the eventual winners.

Quebec then hosted Ontario in the Eastern Division final which was won convincingly by Ontario. The NATIONAL LEAGUE FINAL will be held on October 1st in Toronto between Ontario and winner of the Western Division.

Cricket Canada’s 1st VP, Ravin Moorthy, was buoyant on the potential long term success of the series.

“We are pleased to have conducted this tournament in 2011 despite a very tight domestic budget. This was only possible with the commitment of all of our member organizations. The long term vision, as discussed at Cricket Canada’s AGM earlier this year, is to include all three formats of the game into the NATIONAL LEAGUE and set the basis for Canada’s domestic structure.”

Match coverage will be provide on gocricketgocanada.com via Cover it Live, and match updates and scorecards on Cricinfo.

The Western Division will feature the top players in Western Canada with 11 national players (Senior, Junior, & Canada A) taking part.